Metropolitan police cadets on their passing out parade. ‘Who could blame Jeremy Corbyn for using cuts to policing as an opportunity to park Labour tanks on the traditional Tory lawn of law and order?’
Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty

Police forces in England and Wales reported “steep rises” in violent crime, with a 21% increase in knife crime in the 12 months to September 2017 dominating news coverage. Along with Sadiq Kahn’s high-profile vow to ramp up stop and search in the capital (and a persistent evasion of questions around disproportionate targeting of BAME Londoners), crime and public safety has returned to the forefront of UK politics – with Conservative cuts to the number of frontline police officers singled out for blame by both Labour politicians and their media outriders.

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It’s certainly true that officer numbers have fallen by 20,000 since 2010 – and with numbers that stark, who could blame Jeremy Corbyn for using cuts to policing as an opportunity to park Labour tanks on the traditional Tory lawn of law and order? However, Corbyn’s pledge to fund 10,000 extra bobbies on the beat through increasing capital gains tax betrays a lack of political will to fundamentally shift the parameters of the public safety debate.

More draconian forms of policing and punishment are no guarantee of a reduction in violent crime. The Metropolitan police’s own data from a 10-year study showed that while increased stop and search was effective in reducing nonviolent drug offences, the impact on violent crime was negligible. A 10% increase in stop and search could only expect to yield a 0.1% decrease.

What’s more, an upturn in some forms of violent crime have occurred despite year-on-year increases in the average custodial sentence for possession of a knife or offensive weapon. In 2016 the average custodial sentence was three times as long as in 1996. The UK has the highest incarceration rate in western Europe, and two-thirds of prisons in England and Wales are dangerously overcrowded. Britain’s record on prisoner rehabilitation is abominable – 44% of adults released from prison are reconvicted within one year, with jail time actually increasing the likelihood of reoffending when compared with those handed a sentence of community service for similar offences.

The carceral model of crime reduction – that is, more custodial sentences – clearly isn’t working. In the words of Professor Angela Davis: “Prisons do not disappear social problems, they disappear human beings.” If Corbyn’s Labour party is serious about public safety, a more social approach is sorely needed.

As in health, so in crime – prevention is better than cure. Early intervention programmes supporting socially disadvantaged parents when children are up to three years old significantly reduce the likelihood of behavioural issues when children are 10 and older. Programmes working with children up to eight years old returned substantial benefits in adulthood, including higher education attainment, reduced crime and improved physical health. Early intervention services, including intensive daycare and parental training, have shown longitudinally-tested effectiveness (and long-term cost efficiency) in reducing violent crime. In later years, youth centres, outreach and after-school services are shown to have a positive effect in reducing crime, arrest rates and exclusions. However, such services have faced a £22m funding cut in London alone, with one survey of affected young people finding that 83% of respondents reported a subsequent negative impact on crime.

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Research from the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies at King’s College London identified “inequality, poverty and social disaffection” as key drivers of knife crime, with child and youth offenders identifying their own experiences as victims of violence and a sense of vulnerability within the community as reasons for carrying a knife. Mandatory “two strikes” sentencing for knife crime, as highlighted by the Home Affairs Committee on Knife Crime in 2009, fails to take into account such legitimate feelings of fear and insecurity among socially disadvantaged young people, as well as the role of adult coercion in youth violence. Instead of knee-jerk calls for more police (and policing powers), the Labour party ought to be calling for an increased role for child protection services, who are uniquely placed to carry out both early years intervention and rapport-building work with young people who are at risk.

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In reducing violent crime, I believe that a Corbyn-led Labour government is capable of delivering positive change where it’s most important. Studyafterstudy has shown that the availability of stable employment, reduced income inequality and post-imprisonment neighbourhood affluence are three of the most significant factors in reducing the frequency of violent offences. However, these economic measures must come alongside a commitment to overhauling the criminal justice system, root and branch.

Last year showed just how powerful a inspiring Labour message could be. In a short space of time, once radical ideas such as borrowing to invest, renationalisation of the railways and an end to the war on terror became mainstream political discourse. Now the time has come for Corbyn to demonstrate the same boldness when it comes to policing and prisons – and embrace a transformational social approach to public safety.

• Ash Sarkar is a senior editor at Novara Media, and lectures in political theory at Anglia Ruskin and the Sandberg Instituut